they come to the sites with four wheel drives with very technological weapons coming from libya so often the guards cannot use them in front of them and they know where to exactly to excavate. the other people are the regular villagers. usually young youth and children are sent by a local person to find objects and they give them money in turn of these objects. >> brown: in february, egyptian tourism police announced they'd broken up a major smuggling ring, recovering thousands of stolen objects. but it remains a pervasive problem. >> ( translated ): we have apprehended tens of people with digging equipment. maybe, on a daily basis, there are at least seven to ten cases of illicit excavation. >> brown: last month egypt's antiquities minister asked the obama administration to impose emergency restrictions on the importation of ancient artifacts. those would allow u.s. customs officials to seize objects that lack official documentation. the u.s. state department says it's open to the idea, but the formal request will take time to submit and approve. but hanna says a global effort is needed